Acknowledgments; Contents; 1: Introduction; 1.1 A Portrait of the Author as a Young SF Fan; 1.2 Law Zero; 1.3 The Old Default Future; Notes; Bibliography; Non-fiction; Fiction; Multimedia; 2: Antigravity; 2.1 Antigravity in Science Fiction; 2.2 Antigravity in Science; 2.2.1 Negative Matter; Antimatter Is Not Negative Matter; 2.2.2 Warp Drives and Wormholes; The Casimir Effect; 2.2.3 Dark Energy; 2.3 Conclusion; Notes; Bibliography; Non-fiction; Fiction; Visual Media; 3: Space Travel; Relativistic Time Dilation; 3.1 The Science-Fictional Solar System; 3.2 Halfway to Anywhere?

3.2.1 The Cost of Space3.2.2 Spacemen?; 3.2.3 The Final Frontier?; 3.2.4 The Real Final Frontier; 3.3 Conclusion; Notes; Bibliography; Non-fiction; Fiction; Visual Media; 4: Aliens; 4.1 Extraterrestrials in Science Fiction; 4.1.1 TV Aliens; 4.1.2 Alien Aliens; 4.1.3 Engaging Aliens; 4.1.4 Alien Invasion; 4.1.5 So Where Are They?; 4.2 The Fermi Paradox; 4.2.1 A Humans-Only Galaxy?; 4.3 Conclusion; Notes; Bibliography; Non-fiction; Fiction; Visual Media; 5: Time Travel; 5.1 Time Travel in Science Fiction; 5.1.1 Immutable Timelines; 5.1.2 Mutable Timelines; 5.1.3 Time Viewers

5.2 The Physics of Time Travel5.2.1 What Is Time?; 5.2.2 Tachyons; Faster than Light Particles Can Signal the Past; 5.2.3 Closed Timelike Curves; Time-Travel for Computing?; 5.3 Conclusion; Notes; Bibliography; Non-fiction; Fiction; Visual Media; 6: The Nature of Reality; 6.1 Science Fiction: An Escape to Reality?; 6.1.1 Itś Not Paranoia If They Really Are Out to Get You; 6.1.2 Virtual Realities; 6.1.3 Parallel Realities; 6.1.4 Summary; 6.2 Science and Reality; 6.2.1 Are We Living in a Simulation?; 6.2.2 Quantum Weirdness and Parallel Worlds; Ontic and Epistemic States; 6.3 Conclusion; Notes

8.2.3 The Robotś Dilemma8.2.4 All Hail Our Robot Overlords?; 8.3 Conclusion; Notes; Bibliography; Non-fiction; Fiction; Visual Media; 9: Transportation; 9.1 Around the World in 80 Ways; 9.1.1 Jetpacks; 9.1.2 Planes, Trains, and Automobiles; 9.1.2.1 Air Travel; 9.1.2.2 The Locomotive; 9.1.2.3 The Internal Combustion Engine; 9.1.3 Teleportation; 9.2 Transport Today; 9.2.1 Jetpacks-Really?; 9.2.2 Getting from A to B; 9.2.2.1 Mass Transport; 9.2.2.2 Automobiles; Six Levels of Driving Automation; 9.2.3 Quantum Teleportation; 9.3 Conclusion; Notes; Bibliography; Non-fiction; Fiction; Visual Media